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Gift recommendations from Gears of War maker and more

Okay, it's officially "Cyber Monday," which is sort of like Black Friday but with mildly less trampling. And that means…Christmas shopping is ON! Now, I'm aware that there are a lot of gift-recommendation

Okay, it's officially "Cyber Monday," which is sort of like Black Friday but with mildly less trampling. And that means…Christmas shopping is ON!

Now, I'm aware that there are a lot of gift-recommendation lists online, so I was posed with a problem — how could I do something a little different from those other lists?

Then it hit me — what would the people who make cool things recommend?

A few e-mails and phone calls later, and I got some top-notch gift ideas from some of the most creative people around…whose own work is well worth checking out!

Up first: Justin Ishmael of Mondo. Mondo's limited-edition art prints featuring custom movie posters are some of the coolest pieces of memorabilia you'll find online and they often sell out within minutes of being issued! There are still some prints up on their site, along with some shirts and other pieces of merchandise. Here's what Justin had to recommend:

Justin Ishmael: One thing I actually just got that I think would be great for a Christmas list is the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection Blu-Ray box set – it's more than $200, but it's all remastered stuff, and includes a book about The Birds. I haven't had time to watch it yet, but I can't wait to sit down with it!

Kirk Hammett of Metallica has a book called Too Much Horror Business. He's a big horror collector, and he photographed his entire collection: toys, paintings, posters, masks. If you're into horror stuff at all, this book is a must-have — it's gorgeous! There's stuff in there I never knew about, and it's about quadrupled my eBay "To Buy" list.

Three of the biggest poster artists of all time — Drew Struzan, Bob Peak and Saul Bass — they all have really amazing books of their work out right now. We're doing an afternoon of Saul Bass shorts on Dec.1 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, including his films Why Man Creates and Quest (based on a Ray Bradbury story) in 35 mm.

A great guy from whom you can get original art and art books is Stuart Ng, who has a store out in Torrance. I'm also loving IDW's Artist Editions, oversized books that present classic comic books' original black-and-white artwork at their original size. Any of those are excellent, excellent, excellent gifts. If you love horror, I also recommend IDW's Locke & Key by Joe Hill. I just started reading it, and it's amazing.

Next up: What's more Christmas-y than toys? So I talked to three of The Four Horsemen, an acclaimed collective of action-figure sculptors whose current work includes the Masters of the Universe Classics line (check out their original creation Draego-Man), the DC Universe Classics line, and of course their own creations that can be bought at Store Horsemen, including the Outer Space Men and their super-bad creation Scarabus. Here's what the Horsemen I spoke with recommended!

Eric "Cornboy" Mayse: Personally, I'm a huge fan of 3A Toys, a company started by Ashley Wood — they do a lot of robots, and large-scale toys. Some are kind of expensive, but if you're looking for underground, top-of-the-line pop culture stuff, that's the way to go.

We're going to be releasing our Outer Space Men in holiday colors — red, green and blue. Those you can get at Store Horsemen. We've also got some of our exclusive figures from New York Comic-Con available on the site.

I'm a big fan of this band called Coheed and Cambria. They had a two-part CD release called The Afterman — the first part was spectacular, a really cool concept that has a whole background storyline with it. The lead singer/writer, Claudio Sanchez, does a series of comic books based on this called The Armory Wars, which I'm really excited about.

October Toys has OMFG (Outlandish Mini-Figure Guys), where fans designed characters on their forum, and they voted in what would make it into the production line. They're great stocking stuffers, inspired by the M.U.S.C.L.E figures of the 1980s.

Eric Treadaway: One thing that I'm a big fan of along with the rest of us are the Glyos toys from Onell Design. They've got an offshoot called Weaponeers of Monkaa, and they're doing with all those what we're doing with Outer Space Men — they all have modular parts, so you can take them apart and reassemble them and make different figures.

You can also check out the Spy Monkey Creations sets, where you can assemble different weapons and things in various colors.

For some special outtakes where the Four Horsemen talk about their favorite toys they got for Christmas growing up, check out my personal site, www.zswriter.com!

And of course, who doesn't like giving/getting some new technological gizmo for Christmas? For some insight on that, I called up Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder of Epic Games, the company behind such international hits as Gears of War (currently prepping the new installment, Gears of War: Judgment) and Infinity Blade.

Main character Marcus Fenix, center, and fellow "gears" Jace Stratton (left) and Domingo Santiago (right), look to finish the fight in 'Gears of War 3'.(Photo: Epic Games/Microsoft Studios)

I asked Mark for some recommendations about video games, computers and more and here's what he had to say!

Mark Rein: Obviously, I'm into games! I think the iPad mini is a fantastic little iPad that's great for kids, though it's good for adults, too.

I'm loving the new Nintendo Wii U. I'm still very hot on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. I think there's some great value bundles for those. I highly recommend the Steam game service as it lets you take your PC games anywhere you want.

All the new Windows 8 PCs and tablets are great. The Lenovo Yoga pad is actually a great little laptop that's super fast and great for games. Same with the Microsoft Surface, which has a great interface for Steam and other gaming services.

I try to put in at least 10-12 hours a week gaming, though I don't have as much time as I'd like — I have a business to run!I'm now the company expert at Epic Games about Windows 8. I've bought about one of everything that uses it. I try to play with all these little gizmos, and figure out strategies about adjusting our products toward the new Windows.

TV and movie-wise, I think Game of Thrones is amazing — I also love the books. I consume pretty much any media you can think of!

For my three kids, I'm thinking the Wii U is going to be the family gift, and we're talking about iPad minis for the kids. Last year we got them iPod touches, and I'm amazed at how much they use those! They still use their 3DS handheld devices, and their Wii. They're not cheap, but if you can afford those, they're great gifts for kids.

Those are the recommendations I got from the experts! Here are a few of my own for the road:

Unbored: The Essential Field Guide for Serious Fun is a great book of imaginative activities for kids co-edited by Joshua Glenn, who participated in some of the guest blogs in my last run! It's a great gift for kids and parents, and has even earned a seal of approval from an ADHD expert. My parents could have used this when I was growing up!

I highly recommend the custom plush toys made by Handmade Stuffs, which start at $50. They're durable and adorable, and they'll do about any character you want, though you might not get your plush until after Christmas. If you need something sooner, try the weird and wonderful toys and illustrations at Paisley Fawn.

There's more great comics than I could possibly list as recommendations, but a great book for all ages is Cursed Pirate Girl, which features ridiculously detailed art by Jeremy Bastian. If you're in Los Angeles, there's a gallery show for this on Dec.1.

If you're willing to give someone a rain check for next February, you might want to get this sweet Knight Rider KITT toy! I remember there was one of these in the 1980s, but this is up to date with a Michael Knight figure to drive it, sound effects, a pulsating LED on the front, and, most importantly, the voice of William Daniels as KITT! I've already made sure to order one as a gift … from ME to ME!

Or failing all that, you could just get something off the Amazon Wish Lists for your friends, loved ones, and handsome, witty bloggers who provide you with excellent links … eh, worth a shot.

Any cool, wonderful or just plain weird gifts you'd like to recommend this holiday season, Pop Readers? Speak up in the comments!